Push/pull plunger clamp with take up for wear

ABSTRACT

In a toggle action plunger clamp having a base assembly and a sleeve in which to mount an elongated body, a reciprocable work piece engaging plunger in the body and a cantilever handle operated link to reciprocate said plunger, the improvement providing a split contractable sleeve. The plunger body has a series of longitudinal slits and is also contractable on contraction of said sleeve for maintaining a uniform non-wobbly sliding fit between the plunger and body.

llnited States Patent [191 Blatt [54] PUSH/PULL PLUNGER CLAMP WITH TAKE UP FOR WEAR [76] lnventor: Leland F. Blatt, 24121 Mound Road,

Warren, Mich. 48091 [22] Filed: Oct. 6, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 186,954

[52] US. Cl. ..269/228, 269/201, 269/285 [51] Int. Cl. ..B25b 1/14, B25b 5/12 [58] Field of Search ..269/228, 77, 78, 269/285, 321 R, 321 ME, 201

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS R7,343 10/1876 Barnes .......269/78 X 2,574,281 11/1951 Olson 2,846,906 8/1958 Hill et al. 3,116,058 12/1963 Blatt ..269/31 [111 3,735,972 [451 May 2 9, 1973 3,273,878 9/1966 Blatt ..269/32 3,371,923 3/1968 Blatt.... ..269/32 3,628,783 12/1971 Blatt ....269/20l X Primary Examiner-Robert C. Riordon Assistant ExaminerJoseph T. Zatarga Attorney-Cullen, Settle, Sloman and Cantor [5 7] ABSTRACT In a toggle action plunger clamp having a base assembly and a sleeve in which to mount an elongated body, a 'reciprocable work piece engaging plunger in the body and a cantilever handle operated link to reciprocate said plunger, theimprovement providing a split contractable sleeve. The plunger body has a series of longitudinal slits and is also contractable on contraction of said sleeve for maintaining a uniform non-wobbly sliding fit between the plunger and body.

4 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures Patented May 29 1973 3,735,972

. 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 I] I I.

llllll I' 11 II I I n n i I INVENTOR ff-1 LELAND F. BLATT n BY iew, [we M 2:

ATTORNEYS Patented May 29, 1973 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG. 3

IH H

T- R W mum q/ M M u m N 2 mm 6 L H- W Y B AT TOHNEYS 1 PUSH/PULL PLUNGER CLAMP WITH TAKE UP FOR WEAR BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION l-leretofore, in the normal functioning of convention toggle action plunger clamps, wherein a plunger is adapted for reciprocal clamping movements within a body mounted upon a base support, as the plunger or the body wears, there will be developed a partly wobbling fit between said plunger and body which detracts from the efficiency of the clmaps.

Various means have been attempted in order to compensate for such wear.

Heretofore, in toggle action plunger clamps, there are situations where it is desirable that the plane or path of movement of the control handle be other than vertical but be varied for a paritcular job and the convenience of a paritcular operation, often necessitating very difficult mounting of the toggle action clamp.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved toggle action plunger clamp and wherein, effective means are provided for taking up the slack due to any wear of the plunger or the bore of the body supporting the plunger.

It is a furthe object to provide an improved split collar on the base assembly together with a split body contractable upon contraction of the collar in order to take up any slack due to wear of the plunger or in the bore of the body and to produce a zero tolerance.

It is another object to provide an improved mounting for the plunger assembly including its supporting body by which the same is movably and rotatively positioned initially within the base assembly collar or sleeve and rotated so as to lie in the desired plane of operation which includes the handle thereafter and suitably secured as by welding to said base assembly.

These and other objects will be seen from the following specification and claims in conjunction with the appended drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary partly broken away side elevational view of the present toggle action plunger clamp.

FIG. is a right end elevational view thereof.

FIG. 3 is a top plan view thereof.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Referring to the drawing, the base assembly 11 including base plate 13 is suitably apertured for mounting and securing upon the support S and a split collar or adapted to retainingly engage the other car 19 to limit contraction movements of said ears as against over contraction.

The bore 31 in the collar or sleeve 15 adjustably receives cylindrical body 33 having a longitudinal bore 35 therethrough which is polygonal in corss section such as rectangular, or square in the preferred embodiment.

A series of equally spaced longitudinal radial slots 37 extend through body 33 radially to its bore and throughout a portion of its length adjacent collar 15.

Elongated plunger 39, square in corss section at 43 in the present instance, and of a shape to correspond to bore 35 is movably positioned within said bore and at its outer end has an axial bore 41 adapted to receive a suitable adapter A for engagement with a work piece W, fragmentarily shown, anchoring the same agaisnt support S. The inner end of plunger 39 has a central axial slot 45 adapted to receive one end of link 47 which is pivoted thereto by pin 49.

Body 33 intermiediate its ends has an elongated link clearance slot 51 which terminates in an enlarged handle clearance slot 53, FIG. 3.

Cantilever type handle 55 has a bifurcated end portion 57 which extends down through clearance slot 53 and mountes transverse bushing 59 to cooperatively receive the pivot pin 61, FIGS. 1 and 3.

Suitable spacer stop 63 is mounted on said bushing between said bifurcated ends 57 and serves as a stop limiting retracting movements of the link 47 shown in dotted lines in FIG. 1. Additional spacers 65 are mounted on pivot pin 61 and interposed between the body and the handle, FIG. 3.

A portion of said handle intermediate its ends is centrally slotted at 67 to receive the other end of the link 47 whichis pivoted thereto by pivot pin 69.

The complete assembly of the boyd 33 and plunger 39 therein with handle 55 with link 47 can be nromally positioned with the handle upright as shown in FIG. 2. Alternately, depending upon the plane in which it is most convenient to operate the handle 55, said assembly may be rotated with respect to supporting split sleeve 15 to the desired position, and anchored in that position by suitable fastening means such as the welds 71, FIG. 1. By this construction, the handle and its associated assemby may be rotated through any angle up to degrees as designated by the are 75, FIG. 2.

OPERATION Handle 55 is adapted to oscillate from the work piece engaging position shown in FIG. 1 to the dotted line retracted position also shown. By virture of the pivotal connection of the link 47 to the plunger 39, said plunger is adapted to retract a travel distance as designated at 73.

The present improvement is particularly directed to a means by which any wear of the plunger or in the bore 35 of the boyd may be compensated for by a slight loosening of the set screws 29 and at the same time, a slight tightening of the cap screw 25.

The contraction, thus, of the slit sleeve 31 reducing the space 23, FIG. 2 and in view of the series of slots 37 in the body provides for sufficient contraction of the said body 33 as to provide an effective non-wobbling sliding fit of the plunger 39 with respect to the contractable body and thus provide for a zero tolerance.

The present construction is adapted to provide holding pressure of approximately 5,000 pounds for effectively anchoring the work piece W with respect to the support S, for illustran'on.

Having dscribed my invention, reference shoul now be had to the following claims.

I claim: 1. In a push clamp having a base assembly including a sleeve, an alongated body projected through and secured to said sleeve and having a bore, a plunger reciprocal within said body and projecting therefrom to retainingly engage a work piece, a handle mounted on the boyd for oscillatory motion and a link pivotally interconnecting said handle and plunger whereby oscillatory movements of the handle project and retract said plunger;

the improvement comprising a plurality of peripherally spaced longitudinal slits in said body, said body slits extending radially through said body to its bore and extending longitudinally from a first end of the body; a slit in aid sleeve; parallel spaced ears extending radially outward from the sleeve at its slit; and a fastener adjustably interconnecting said ears for maintaining a uniform non-wobbling sliding fit between said plunger and body. 2. A push clamp for anchoring a workpiece against a support comprising:

a base assembly including a base mounted on the support and a sleeve secured to said base, said sleeve having a longitudinal bore and having a longitudinal slit extending the full lenth thereof to define a split-collar type sleeve; I an elongated boyd having a first end coaxially projected through said sleeve and secured thereto, said body having a bore of rectangular corss-section, said boyd further having a plurality of elongated body slits, said body slits being spaced about the periphery of said boyd and extending radially outward from said body bore to communicate with said sleeve bore for adjusting the diameter of said boyd, said body slits extending longitudinally from said first end of said body to the middle of said body; said body further including a clearance slot communicating with the body bore and extending from the other end of said body to the middle of said body without communicating with said elongated body slits;

a plunger having a corss section similar to said body bore and mounted for reciprocal movement within body bore at the first end of said body,

said plunger having a first end projecting outwardly from said body and being adapted to retainingly engage a workpiece;

a handle having a cantilever extension movably projecting through said clearance slot,

said extension being pivotally mounted upon said a link having a first end pivotally connected to said plunger and a secon end pivotally connected to said handle;

whereby, upon oscillating movement of said handle, said plunger reciprocates to anchor and release said workpiece wiht respect to said support;

parallel, spaced apart ears extending radially outward from said sleeve at the longitudinal slit of said sleeve; and

fastening menas for adjustably interconnecting said ears for maintaining said sleeve snugly fit around said elongated body and for maintaining said elongated boyd snugly fit around said plunger;

whereby said plunger is maintained in a nonwobbling, snug, sliding fit within said elongated body.

3. In the push clamp of claim 2, said handle adapted for mounting in a plane extending thrrough said clearance slot and thrrough the plunger axis;

said body being angularly adjusted within said sleeve throughout at least degrees for determining said plane;

and means securing said body to said sleeve in said ajusted position.

4. In the push clamp of claim 2, an adjustable set screw threaded through one ear and retainingly engaging the other ear, whereby in order to take up slack betwene said sleeve and plunger, the set screw is partly retracted and said fastener partly advanced. 

1. In a push clamp having a base assembly including a sleeve, an alongated body projected through and secured to said sleeve and having a bore, a plunger reciprocal within said body and projecting therefrom to retainingly engage a work piece, a handle mounted on the body for oscillatory motion and a link pivotally interconnecting said handle and plunger whereby oscillatory movements of the handle project and retract said plunger; the improvement comprising a plurality of peripherally spaced longitudinal slits in said body, said body slits extendinG radially through said body to its bore and extending longitudinally from a first end of the body; a slit in said sleeve; parallel spaced ears extending radially outward from the sleeve at its slit; and a fastener adjustably interconnecting said ears for maintaining a uniform non-wobbling sliding fit between said plunger and body.
 2. A push clamp for anchoring a workpiece against a support comprising: a base assembly including a base mounted on the support and a sleeve secured to said base, said sleeve having a longitudinal bore and having a longitudinal slit extending the full lenth thereof to define a split-collar type sleeve; an elongated body having a first end coaxially projected through said sleeve and secured thereto, said body having a bore of rectangular cross-section, said body further having a plurality of elongated body slits, said body slits being spaced about the periphery of said body and extending radially outward from said body bore to communicate with said sleeve bore for adjusting the diameter of said body, said body slits extending longitudinally from said first end of said body to the middle of said body; said body further including a clearance slot communicating with the body bore and extending from the other end of said body to the middle of said body without communicating with said elongated body slits; a plunger having a cross section similar to said body bore and mounted for reciprocal movement within body bore at the first end of said body, said plunger having a first end projecting outwardly from said body and being adapted to retainingly engage a workpiece; a handle having a cantilever extension movably projecting through said clearance slot, said extension being pivotally mounted upon said body; a link having a first end pivotally connected to said plunger and a second end pivotally connected to said handle; whereby, upon oscillating movement of said handle, said plunger reciprocates to anchor and release said workpiece with respect to said support; parallel, spaced apart ears extending radially outward from said sleeve at the longitudinal slit of said sleeve; and fastening means for adjustably interconnecting said ears for maintaining said sleeve snugly fit around said elongated body and for maintaining said elongated body snugly fit around said plunger; whereby said plunger is maintained in a non-wobbling, snug, sliding fit within said elongated body.
 3. In the push clamp of claim 2, said handle adapted for mounting in a plane extending through said clearance slot and thrrough the plunger axis; said body being angularly adjusted within said sleeve throughout at least 180 degrees for determining said plane; and means securing said body to said sleeve in said adjusted position.
 4. In the push clamp of claim 2, an adjustable set screw threaded through one ear and retainingly engaging the other ear, whereby in order to take up slack between said sleeve and plunger, the set screw is partly retracted and said fastener partly advanced. 